Warbird Information Exchange

A few yers ago at the Starkville, Miss. airshow I was walking along taking photos of the WW II eras warbirds when I heard a "whump, whump whump", like someone was trying to slam the door on a minivan. Lost in the trhongs of people (there were no security lines) was a tiny little cherry red Culver PQ-14A drone, probably the rarest aircraft at the event. To my amazement, there was a guy at the tail slamming the fragile elevator up and down trying to see how much it could take. There was a kid sitting in the cockpit talking to his dad, and there was another middle aged man holding the hand of a four year old child, as the child walked out to the wingtip of the wood and fabric wing.
The worst part, there were two teenage boys coaching a teenage girl as she stood in the propellor arc and pulled the propellor blades through rotation. They were really laughing it up. I took a photo and starting running over there as if it were my own airplane. I yelled what the F###ing Hell are you all doing!! They all walked away just looking at me like I was the one in the wrong. I never did find the owner to tell him to check his plane out.

Very entertaining (and frightening) topic!

I just got back from the Slidell airshow (LA) on Saturday, we were marshalling the aircraft. After the show had shut down, I noticed that some mini-morons had written "wash me" and "jaimie loves danny" and other stupidity in the exhaust stains of a T-28.

It's almost enough to make you want to start a human-neutering program....

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ATC: "Oscar 2, cleared to engage wildlife at your discretion..."

A few folks on here may remember my graceful ballet in Rochester, NH as I chased a looping balsa-wood plane with a metal nose that some turd-headed runts chucked at the fabric tail of the Collings F4U-5NL. Ever try and catch one of them suckers? Worse of all, it was the NH ANG that was giving those projectiles out at the show, so there were way more after that.

H e l l , I bet the CF guys on the road have some stories to tell... the public are horrid at the tour events they staff. Countless "rope jumpers" that can't understand the charge to get closer to the planes is one of the only fundraisers they have... then the morons who argue that they are a "local taxpayer" and they should have the right to explore their municipal airport without bounds... try using that line to the Gulfstream biz jet that is there during the week Jethro!

My favorite was the guy who was jumping the line after the tour shut down at the end of the night in Seattle. When we asked him what he was doing as we drove by in the minivan, he said that it was ok, he owned the plane... he rescued it from firefighting and was just going out to check if everything was secure. That went over well.

I loved the times that I would see a certain rug-rat offspring of a museum board member at the National Warplane Museum racing a metal shopping cart (that was used for parts) around inside the hangar... several times hitting planes... with "dad" never saying anything... or worse, letting the volunteer maintenance guys babysit him there for the afternoon... lovely. I bet that kid did some doozies to a couple of planes that were later passed off as unexplained hangar rash.

It's kids like him that made the older guys especially wary of getting kids involved in warbirds... one screws it up for the many.

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Ryan Keough
Stow, MA

It's like anything else Ryan, it's how the kids are taught by their parents.

I know one kid who started wiping on a certain A-26 when he was 7 years old. He was taught to respect other peoples things. The things that have been mentioned would never cross his or most of his friend's minds.

The definition of integrity ? What you do when no one else is looking.

I started into warbirds at the age of 13 at Air Heritage. I can say that I never treated any ones' stuff, let alone aircraft like that. But then again if I did, my dad would have killed me, then my grandfather would have killed me, and then my uncle would have killed me.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

And therein lies the solution. When I was old enough to understand the English language, my father instilled in me the fact that it was "Yes Sir, No Sir" and "Yes Mam, No Mam". Granted, not a well accepted method nowadays but it sure worked for my sisters and I.

Somehow, we need to retain some of what my Dad's generation stood for. I think I managed alright and my boys have survived the same lesson (although somewhat modified).

Respect needs to be taught at a very early age.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

And therein lies the solution. When I was old enough to understand the English language, my father instilled in me the fact that it was "Yes Sir, No Sir" and "Yes Mam, No Mam". Granted, not a well accepted method nowadays but it sure worked for my sisters and I.



We must have had the same Dad. Mine was a Ohio State Trooper. One "walked the line" in my house.

The name for what is being described here is :ANARCHISM.

It's "I'm only going to obey the rules that I want to obey and cheat on those rules whenever I feel like it."
It's not only at air/car shows. You see it every day.

There's the people who park in the "Fire Lane" right under the "No Parking" sign.

It's the people who go through the 12 item express line at the store with 20 (or more) items.

It's the people who barely slow down when making a right turn on a red light.

I'm sure all of us could make additions to this list, but you get the idea.

Every day, Mrs. Mudge puts up with kids that have that same attitude.

It's "Me first, me first and to he!! with you if you don't like it."

I hate it. I was also brought up in the "Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, ma'am. No ma'am." generation and it pi$$es me off, no end to see it.

OK...Rant off.

Mudge the respectful

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Land of the free because of the brave

Must be something with the name Ryan... that's gotta be it!

Seriously though, yes, integrity is something that was drilled into my life from an early age... my father, a fifth generation Irish Catholic dairy farmer blessed me with a strong work ethic and, what I think, is a very strong sense of integrity.

While that kid was rolling around the hangar, I was training to become the youngest docent at the museum at the age of 14. I loved talking to the veterans and treated each one of those aircraft like they were my mom's china.

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Ryan Keough
Stow, MA

Sorry but its a whole generation of Pigs raising Pigs. Its the spoiled brat generation, ie my kids age that were all raised like little pigs with no respect and are now the parents of the new and up comming little pigs.
Part of it is the wonderful restrictions on spanking when I was a parent, and has progessed into what we see now. And the biggest problem is if you have a 500,000 dollar aircraft that you see some little pig destroying you become the bad guy for trying to stop it. And the little Pig knows that, and that is why he does it.

I have two sons. My wife and I pay special attention to them. Some people have said that we mistreat them. They have to go to bed at a certain time. They aren't allowed to play video games. They have to make clean plates, and help clean up after we are done doing anything including dinner and playing with toys. Corporal punishment is a reality in our house- spanking and pushups. We talk about God with them almost every day, although we do not attend church. We want them to know that there is a higher power out there that sees them doing good and bad things, and is taking notes. We pull our kids aside and tell them when they are doing something wrong, and have taken both of them away from events where they were misbehaving. We make them say please and thank you. We go by Dad, Mom, and first names with other people, and if a person prefers to be called Mr. or Mrs., my oldest knows to ask what a person wants to be called. We constantly tell them how important they are to us, and teach them how to help us out, and we give them little jobs to earn the toys we give them- they have lots of toys but have worked for all of them. We spend lots of time with them- yesterday, I assistant coached and my oldest tried out for soccer in a summer league.

Suffice to say, although we have had the occasional broken toy, dish, or bicycle (they are boys after all), we are often complimented about how well behaved they are. We went into very jumbled antique stores today, and didn't have to tell either of them to behave or don't touch, not once- the 3 year old did exceptionally well. It isn't easy- my wife and I switch out and don't have them in day care so our days are organized around their schedules. What they do makes it worth the time.

I don't think I have a magic touch, and I don't think I am the best parent out there. My wife and I definitely didn't have the best models for parents. I don't claim a mastery of parenting skills, and sometimes, I don't know what to do and have to improvise successfully and unsuccessfully. But I do discipline myself to pay attention to my kids, because I think they need that more than anything else, including education. I'm a pretty tolerant person, but don't handle seeing kids being abused or neglected. I don't think it is my mission to moralize to everybody about their kids, but I have gotten pretty disgusted and said things to people about their kids when it is obvious to me that no one cares about them. I take them aside, and tell them that all they have to do is spend some time with them. If they don't start yelling at me to mind my own business, the most common excuse I hear is that they just don't understand their kids. I tell them that spending time with them will cure that. The next excuse is that they don't have time because of work, family, etc. That is true for lots of people, no question. But who's going to do it for you? Teacher, daycare, neighbors, peers? I think at one time in this country, you could count on those people, because they were close echoes of the social "norms" most people expected. But today, all those entities are strange like from another planet. That is probably a big part of why my wife and I do what we do.

Again, I don't want to moralize or tell people how to care for their kids. This is a short description of a lot of time we take to spend with our kids. I know not everybody has that time, and it is also a very personal choice. But I'm pretty pleased with the results, and it think it speaks toward what is being described here.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Sign that gets placed near the front of my charger, "Touch not less ye be touched".

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Well,... you've got my vote!!

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

My wife is a 4th grade elementary teacher and you're describing about 25% of her students (and their worthless parents) to a "T"! She teaches with quite a few older teachers that have been in the district for 25 years and are close to retirement. On several occasions these senior educators have commented about having an unruly child and also having the father/mother 20 years earlier which was just like the child. They tend to refer to these little monsters as "apples"...referring to the fact that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

John

John...Mrs. Mudge also teaches 4th grade and believe me, the percentage is higher than 25%. (Parents included.)

Mudge the teacher's pet

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Land of the free because of the brave